


Counting To Three

by dakeyras



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Bartender Sasuke, Fluff, Mild Smut, Multi, One Shot, Polyamory, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Wizard Sasuke, team seven
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-30
Updated: 2020-05-30
Packaged: 2021-03-02 05:15:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,011
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23769859
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dakeyras/pseuds/dakeyras
Summary: Sasuke Uchiha, an adventurer who bends arcane forces to his will with ease, has settled down and bought a pub. But twenty is too young to retire, and old friends are always welcome to visit.
Relationships: Haruno Sakura/Uchiha Sasuke/Uzumaki Naruto
Comments: 7
Kudos: 53
Collections: Exchange no Jutsu 2020





	Counting To Three

**Author's Note:**

  * For [SnowyK](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SnowyK/gifts).



The Mangy Dog was full to bursting again.

It was a fine drinking establishment. Sasuke had spent a lot of time and money making sure that was the case. A fire crackled in the hearth, and a pair of crossed swords hung over the fireplace. Burnished wooden tables were arranged in neat rows. Dozens of tired men and women were gathered tonight, talking and laughing together.

The only silent spot in the whole tavern was around the barman.

Sasuke glowered as he poured another pint for an inebriated labourer. The man’s bushy red beard looked familiar; probably he was a regular, but Sasuke never bothered to remember his customers’ names.

“That’s a really nice pair of swords,” the bearded man slurred, pointing at the blades decorating the chimney. “Family heirloom?”

“Something like that,” Sasuke said. In truth, he’d picked them up a little more recently than the word  _ heirloom _ implied.

Short answers often kept his patrons from speaking to him, but Beardy was not deterred. “They look like those swords that wossname had, you know the ones, famous adventurers. Team Seven, that’s them. Can’t believe they’re already retired, they can’t be more than thirty years old.”

“Twenty years,” Sasuke corrected him, then placed the man’s drink down and turned to serve the next customer.

The door to the pub slammed open and a short man in a grimy cloak and hood swept in. “My dear bartender, a pint of your finest beer!” he called out.

Sasuke sighed, then raised his voice, effortlessly cutting through the din. “We’re closing early tonight. Five minutes, then everybody needs to leave.” A chorus of complaints came back, but Sasuke stared down the room until there was only quiet grumbling.

The cloaked man made his way to the bar. “Good inkeep, perhaps you can supply me with three glasses of something celebratory?”

“For fuck’s sake, Naruto, you don’t have to do this  _ every _ time,” Sasuke replied, trying to hide his smile.

Naruto pushed his hood back the barest bit, revealing a mop of golden hair and achingly gorgeous blue eyes. “I’ll get a laugh out of you one day, believe it!”

“I’d give you anything you want, in a heartbeat, if you’d ask for it,” Sasuke didn’t say. He poured two shots of cherry liqueur. Neither he nor Naruto made any move to drink.

“You wanted  _ three _ glasses?” he asked, and Naruto nodded, grinning.

“Five minutes are up,” Sasuke announced as a third glass joined the first two. As grumbling erupted throughout the room, he augmented his voice with the faintest trace of a magical command.  **“Everyone out.”** He grabbed Naruto’s sleeve as he went to leave as well. “Not you.”

Once the pub was empty, Naruto tossed his filthy cloak aside. Underneath he was wearing a grey tunic and worn brown trousers. Sasuke had never seen him in anything else over all their years travelling together.

The twin scabbards at Naruto’s waist were empty. He walked over to the fireplace and climbed a stool. First one, then the other, sword came down.

“I’ve missed these,” Naruto said softly, sliding them into the empty sheaths.

“So I’m a bartender now. What have you been doing to keep busy?” Sasuke asked, forcibly changing the subject. He really didn’t want to talk about the good old days.

Naruto laughed. “I’m apprenticed to a baker now. I actually had some fresh bread for you, but I got hungry and ate it. Hope you don’t mind!”

“Just for that, I’m going to cut you off after your second pint,” Sasuke said, smirking.

A quiet creak from the door had Sasuke’s hand grab the staff propped against the wall beside him. He stopped himself when he recognised the newcomer.

“Still got all your old instincts, eh, Sasuke?” Sakura asked, her chainmail jangling as she sat down at an empty table. Her hair was twisted up into a bun and boiled leather armour covered her limbs. Underneath, Sasuke knew, there was pale, creamy skin, so soft to touch, and… he forced himself to concentrate on what she was saying. “Sorry about the late hour. Naruto’s message almost didn’t reach me.”

Naruto carried the drinks over and took another of the chairs. Sasuke propped his plain wooden staff against the table’s edge and took a third seat, so they were all equidistant.

“To past adventures,” Sasuke offered, and they each toasted and drank.

“Alright,” Naruto said. "There’s a reason I wanted to get us together. Beyond just wanting to see you both, I mean. I found out about a quest that only we can do, and it’s too important to ignore. Team Seven needs to re-assemble.”

Silence greeted his words.

“Hear me out, okay? Kakashi found out about a plot to topple the Hokage. The Order of the Snake are ascendant, and soon they’ll invade. We can stop them if we kill their leader.”

“Why does that need to be us?” Sakura asked. “If I came all this way just to hear about some nutjob who needs putting down, when you could have handled him by yourself, then I’m gonna be pretty pissed off.”

“I thought priests weren’t allowed to swear?” Sasuke joked, unable to help himself. Sakura’s exasperated eye-roll and Naruto’s chuckle triggered a wave of nostalgia, and he shivered.

The mood in the room instantly hardened as Naruto spoke again. “The new leader of the Order of the Snake is someone we’re all familiar with. Orochimaru, the Apostate.”

Sasuke scowled, hand tightening on his staff. A flash of rage tore through him, and he struggled to steady his breathing. How many times had they thought they’d seen the last of that monster?

“Sasuke? You’re doing it again…” Sakura said. He glanced at his staff and swore, then with a flicker of will he dampened the flames wreathing the end of it.

“So, we have to try to kill Orochimaru. Again.” Sasuke’s voice was clipped, calm, and furious. “And this is going to take weeks, maybe months.”

“We can do it,” Naruto said urgently. “We might be the only ones who can.”

“I’m retired. I have other duties now.” A broad gesture encompassed the whole bar. “You’ve come a long way, so you can stay the night. But I won’t be leaving with you tomorrow.”

Sasuke almost believed the words as he said them.

Sakura nodded, uncertainty written plain across her face. “I’ll take you up on that offer of a bed, and then tomorrow I’m heading back home.” She was clearly feeling the call of adventure as well. Sasuke knew she would be travelling with them, come morning.

Naruto grinned and Sasuke had to fight down the urge to smack him. He’d won again; the least he could do was be gracious about it!

“I don’t know about you two, but it’s a bit early for bed for me,” Naruto said. “What do we feel like doing?”

“We should celebrate or something – it’s my bar, after all, so we can do whatever we like in here.” Sasuke didn’t voice any thoughts on what else he’d like to do to the other two. But he was thinking it. How could he not, when they were  _ right there _ , after months apart?

“Do you still remember the rules of  _ Slay the Dragon _ ?” Sakura asked, pulling out a deck of cards. “I haven’t played since, well…”

As she trailed off, Sasuke recalled the warm summer night after Team Seven slew their first dragon. As the evening wore on, the game became slightly racy, culminating in a round of strip poker that ended when Sasuke was too drunk to help Sakura get her chainmail off. Surely he wasn’t the only one who remembered?

He forcibly brought himself back to the present. He was proud of how steady his voice was. “I’m happy to play a round. Naruto?”

Naruto was already dealing out the cards. It was a simple enough game, basically poker with a few extra rules around the ‘dragon’ card, which changed every round. As with all games of chance, Naruto tended to win. He claimed it was pure luck, but Sasuke suspected some sort of sleight of hand. It was just for fun, so it didn’t matter, he supposed.

“So how’s your baking apprenticeship going?” Sakura asked, and Sasuke basked in the chatter as the three of them caught up on all the little details that defined their retired lives.

The first few hands went well for Sasuke, and soon he had a tidy stack of the bottle tops they were using instead of money arrayed in front of him. He threw the next round; he didn’t want to win too fast or the game would be over. It was too early to go to sleep.

Naruto’s ‘luck’ kicked in soon enough, and two hands that should have gone Sasuke’s way ended with him tying Sakura for least chips. Sakura went all in and lost, and Sasuke resigned himself to a slow defeat at Naruto’s hands. At least they were nice soft hands, the nails neatly trimmed and with such wonderfully dexterous fingers.

It wasn’t like Sasuke to be distracted so easily or so often. A glance at Sakura – a tiny triangle of skin showed at her neck, and he desperately wanted to run his fingers and mouth over it – didn’t help either.

And then something in his brain blew a fuse when Sakura dealt herself in and put her stake in the middle of the table.

It was a pair of women’s underwear. Delicate, lacy, black silk.  _ Sakura’s _ underwear.

She smirked as she met his gaze. “Scared?” she taunted, and Sasuke gulped. Then, staring her down, he reached a trembling hand under his robes. With a great deal of fumbling, he drew out a pair of white briefs and added them to his own pile of chips. He felt his cheeks burning, but kept his gaze high, refusing to be embarrassed.

“I guess it’s my turn,” Naruto said. “Can I just use a token or something? Only, I’m not wearing any underclothes.”

Sasuke’s brain, which had just recovered from its previous meltdown, promptly went up in flames again.

The next hand was played in near-silence. Naruto won and collected his chips, but he made no move to pick up the underwear. “So I probably should have asked this beforehand, but what are we doing here? Is this strip poker, but we start with the bottom layer of clothing? Or do I get to keep these?”

That was the question, wasn’t it? The energy that had been building in Sasuke – in all of them, really – since they’d first met, through every adventure since, and growing and growing while they were apart, couldn’t be denied. So what  _ were _ they doing? Wasting time?

Sasuke looked over at Sakura, and an instant of eye contact was enough to see the feelings there. He stood and walked over to Naruto, leaning over his friend’s chair. “I think I speak for both of us when I answer your question with this,” Sasuke said, and kissed him.

A frisson of pleasure raced all the way from his balls to his brain. His hands cradled Naruto’s head, pushed through his hair, tilted his mouth  _ just so _ .

An instant later Sasuke was pulling back, gasping for air, and Naruto sat there, stupefied. Sakura took that as her cue to lean in and kiss him as well.

Sasuke watched them, heart in his throat. He gently ran his hand down Sakura’s arm, feeling the soft skin and hard muscle under her armour.

She grabbed the front of his shirt and pulled him forward. Her kiss with Naruto ended just in time for her to drag her lips down Sasuke’s neck and over his collarbone, and he melted into her arms. Naruto’s fingers were fumbling with Sasuke’s shirt, trying to get the buttons undone.

One arm gripped his staff and the other reached out to touch his friends. With a soft  _ pop _ , Sasuke teleported them up into one of the empty guest bedrooms.

He made sure to leave their clothes on the tavern floor.

**Author's Note:**

> This was my submission to the 'Exchange No Jutsu' fanfiction and fanart exchange. I had a blast writing this, and I hope the recipient enjoys it as well. I really recommend taking part in an exchange to anyone else who's interested or maybe unsure -- they're a great experience and working to a prompt that has a lot of creative freedom, plus knowing you're writing for one person in particular, makes for great motivation.


End file.
